Nonetheless, their overarching MO remains simple. "There's so much other hard stuff in life," says Johnson. "Music and art is an escape to have fun and enjoy things. When we get to play music and just have a good time, all that hard shit about everything just escapes out your fingertips."

NO REST FOR BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD | March 13, 2013 Blackbird Blackbird's 2012 EP Boracay Planet takes its name from two sources: Boracay — a beach-filled, postcard-perfect island in the Philippines — and a dream Mikey Maramag had about the tourist trap, despite never having visited.

THE LUMINEERS AIM FOR THE RAFTERS | February 01, 2013 Jeremiah Fraites isn't famous — at least not yet. The drummer of the Lumineers, the folk trio who experienced an outrageously fruitful 2012, is talking to me two days before appearing on the January 19 Saturday Night Live, but he doesn't sound convinced that his band have crossed the fame threshold.

PHANTOM GLUE COME INTO FOCUS | January 23, 2013 Variations of "nightmarish" and "psychedelic" come up repeatedly as Matt Oates describes his band's work — which makes sense, given that Phantom Glue trace their roots back to Slayer, the Jesus Lizard, and cult post-hardcore act KARP.